Saudi Pro League chief Carlo Nohra: Superstar signings key to long-term ambitions

The Saudi Pro League will continue to invest significantly to realise its ambition of becoming one of the world’s top domestic competitions, but its focus is on financial viability for its clubs, insists the league’s chief operating officer.

The kingdom has this summer embarked on an extraordinary player-recruitment drive, attracting some of the game’s most prominent footballers to its lead division.

Brazil star Neymar and Ballon d’Or holder Karim Benzema headline the high-profile arrivals – the pair signed for Al Hilal and champions Al Ittihad, respectively – and have been joined in the Saudi Pro League by, among others, current African Footballer of the Year Sadio Mane, Manchester City treble winners Riyad Mahrez and Aymeric Laporte, 2018 World Cup winner N’Golo Kante, and former Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson.

Five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, made the move to the kingdom last December, with Riyadh’s Al Nassr.

The unprecedented investment has been made possible in part by Saudi’s sovereign wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund, taking majority control in June of the league’s traditional “Big Four” clubs: Hilal, Nassr, Ittihad and Al Ahli.

Hilal, record Saudi champions who have also added the likes of Ruben Neves and Aleksandar Mitrovic, have been cited as the world’s second-largest spending club this transfer window.

With a long-term objective to eventually rank as a top-five league, the SPL's strategy forms part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 project, which aims to diversify the economy of the world's chief oil exporter. The kingdom has targeted raising the SPL's market value from 3 billion riyals to more than 8 billion riyals by 2030.

“It's a commitment that has